The CABLELABS(R) consortium (referred to here as “CABLELABS”) is a consortium of members of the cable industry. CABLELABS has promulgated a set of specifications and other documents (referred to here collectively as “Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification” or “DOCSIS”) that define a bi-directional, internet protocol (IP) cable network (referred to here as a “DOCSIS network”). CABLELABS also has promulgated a set of specifications and other documents (referred to here collectively as “PACKETCABLE”) that define an architecture for delivering real-time multimedia services (for example, voice telephony, voice conferencing, and gaming) over a DOCSIS network.
Among other things, PACKETCABLE specifies interfaces between the various elements of the PACKETCABLE architecture. One such interface is an “authorization interface” between a gate controller (GC) of a call management server (CMS) and a cable modem termination system (CMTS). This interface is also referred to as the “pkt-q6” interface.